Recently, the voice & text chat app Discord released a pretty fun sounding new feature called "Go Live" which sadly seems like Linux will miss out on.

Go Live is a feature that allows you to share your game screen with a group of friends on a Discord channel, have them join the chat for it and watch you play. Like smaller and more intimate version of Twitch, only it's just for Discord.

Tweeting out about this new feature last week, the official Discord Twitter said "We just rolled out Go Live to... 100% of you! Everyone can now launch a game, click a button, and start streaming to their friends."

That 100% of people apparently didn't include Linux or Mac. When queried about it, an official Discord staff member said on Reddit "Go Live is a Windows 10 feature, will also be coming to Win7.". It wasn't noted in the changelog either, it was buried in their FAQ.

Not the first time Discord has ignored Linux for a feature. None of their store or Nitro game features work on Linux, which has caused issues for a few developers doing Early Access through Discord that wanted to provide Linux builds. A quick example that I can actually mention in public is Vagrus, so they added an additional option to tick on Fig for Linux users to get access from itch.io. It's the constant little barriers like this, that do put some off using and supporting Linux so it's a real shame.

Heck, Discord haven't even been able to get spellchecking supported in the Linux version despite the open source Hunspell being around and no doubt others they could hook into.

Before you go throwing Discord under a bus and gathering any pitchforks though, it's worth noting that Valve still haven't even managed to get their own Steam broadcasting feature into the Linux client. So Discord certainly aren't alone in not being able to do support such a thing on Linux.

I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. See more from me

Hm... Discord isn't that small company any more, that could use the excuse they have no staff nor budget to implement this. Though I'm using Discord in the meantime on a daily bases, probably the amount of Linux (and Mac) users is as small as in the rest of the gaming world. This bumps us down to reality, showing us we still are a too small market to get first class support. Mostly, there are exceptions of course.

QuoteBefore you go throwing Discord under a bus and gathering any pitchforks though, it's worth noting that Valve still haven't even managed to get their own Steam broadcasting feature into the Linux client.

I wonder if the problem to support sharing screen have something related to X.org

heidi.wengerWhy would i ever use Discord over say Riot ? Discord is starting to treat its Linux users like the good old Microsoft and their Skype huh

Simply boycott proprietary IM services. That's the only way to deal with their proliferation. They are welcome to support open protocols federation (Matrix, or XMPP for example). And if they refuse - don't use them.

This insanity is only getting worse. E-mail managed to support federation for many years just fine. And all these new IMs refuse to do it, even though they can and there are open solutions like above.

While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on Patreon, Liberapay or Paypal. We have no adverts, no paywalls, no timed exclusive articles. Just good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!